Keywords: Beijing has a growing population of 17-20 million people and 1, 000 new cars hit the roads of the capital every day. But Beijing’s planners are struggling to keep the city on the move despite building a subway network that will be the world’s biggest by 2015.
Shi Qixin, a Tsinghua University transport expert, said that ‘the key to solving Beijing’s traffic problem is to improve bus or subway connections to encourage car users to leave their cars at home. ’
But urban Chinese incomes are increasing with the economic growth and residents are losing the patience to ride subway trains as crowded as Mumbai’s local trains.
Liu Yunlong, a manager with a Chinese firm, said the new working hours made no difference to his twenty-minute drive to work.
He said he would continue driving instead of using the subway, despite the rising costs of parking and petrol and restrictions on car usage